1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure in general relates to the field of cancer development. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method or a kit for making risk evaluation of lung cancer in a subject.
2. Description of Related Art
DNA is approximately 99.9% identical from one individual to the next. It is this 0.1% difference that confers a unique phenotype to each individual. In addition to being responsible for phenotypic variation, this “minor” variation among individuals is also associated with the development of diseases. Many scientists have begun to associate the risk of developing certain disease with the inheritance of specific variants, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). SNP is a site where a single base substitution occurs at a frequency of at least 1% in the population, and the average occurrence of SNP in the human genome is about one out of every 1,900 base pairs.
Several SNPs are known to be correlated with the development of cancers. For example, SNP of rs4444903, which is located within epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene, might cause gallbladder and liver cancer; SNPs of rs1799950 and rs1799954, which are respectively located within breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) gene and BRCA2 gene, show correlation with breast cancer; SNP of rs2333227, which is located within myeloperoxidase (MPO) gene, might result in gastric and lung cancer; and SNP of rs3218536, which is located within X-ray repair cross complementing 2 (XRCC2) gene, likely plays a role in the development of breast and ovarian cancer.
Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1), also known as YAP or YAP165, is encoded by YAP1 gene located in the human chromosome 11q22. As a multifunctional intra-cellular junctional protein and transcriptional co-activator, the aberrant expression of YAP1 might de-regulate cellular signal transduction and thus, result in the development of various diseases. Several types of cancers have been demonstrated to be related to the abnormal expression of YAP1. For example, overexpression of YAP1 was observed in several human cancers, including liver cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and ovarian cancer. Inappropriate expression of YAP1 in nuclear and cytoplasmic was associated with the occurrence of colonic adenocarcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, and ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma. Furthermore, even a single S127A mutation of YAP1 is shown to possess the capability of enhancing mammary carcinoma and melanoma growth and promoting their metastasis. Therefore, the abnormal expression of YAP1 protein is in a close relationship with oncology.
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in men and women, and is responsible for about 1-2 million deaths worldwide annually. However, current risk evaluation of lung cancer based on genome typing and/or protein expression is still poor in accuracy, nor is it efficient either. Thus, there exists a need in the related art for a more accurate and efficient method for making risk assessment on a subject whether he/she has or is at risk of developing lung cancer.